Video: Microsoft’s new CEO says he will ‘ruthlessly remove any obstacles that allow us to innovate’

Microsoft just announced that Satya Nadella will lead the company into its next phase. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were both thrilled that he was selected and stated, “Today couldn’t be a better day.”

Nadalla has been with Microsoft for the past 22 years in various capacities, and in his first message to the masses he said, “Our industry does not respect tradition – it only respects innovation. The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must move faster, focus and continue to transform. I see a big part of my job as accelerating our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly.”

“The first thing I want to do and focus on is ruthlessly remove any obstacles that allow us to innovate.”

Microsoft has also put together a 5-minute interview with Nadalla and gives a glimpse of what the future may hold. “The first thing I want to do and focus on is ruthlessly remove any obstacles that allow us to innovate. And then focus all that innovation on things that Microsoft can uniquely do. We are the company that enables people to do more, to play, get more and have more fun, to create more, so sometimes we reference ourselves as the ‘do more company,’ and I want us to be able to take that focus and innovation forward,” said Nadella.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how much leverage Nadalla will have within Microsoft. Gates is staying on board and will be spending a third of his time at the company as an advisor. “Ruthlessly remove any obstacles” is certainly something that Microsoft is not used to.

In addition, the tag line of being the company that “enables people to do more, to play, get more” was already claimed this year by Samsung, who also apparently “Enables Consumers to Play More, Do More, Share More.” Perhaps they are talking both talking about Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 products.

Remove the Metro side of Windows 8 It’s kinda sad that 100% of the win 8 users I know downloaded Pokki as soon as I introduced it to them!

mastjaso

Cool story bro, 100% of the ones I know didn’t cause they can adapt to change.

Tom

It’s not about adapting to change (I frequently embrace it, especially on Android).

It’s about how they broke what worked well.

Cormang

That will never happen.

RealDeal83

Classic Shell is better

Striker67

Possibly an interesting time for MS. It will be interesting to see what the new ceo will call innovation and how much it will affect the privacy of its users.

FlamesFan89

Did he ever screw up that sentence. “The first thing I want to do and focus on is ruthlessly remove any obstacles that allow us to innovate.” The way it is worded, he implies that there are obstacles in place, presumably for others, that allow Microsoft to innovate, and he wants to remove those obstacles, which would, in turn, prevent Microsoft from further innovating.

I think what he meant was “The first thing I want to do and focus on is ruthlessly remov[ing] any obstacles that [prevent] us [from] innovat[ing].”

Omis

Knowing microsoft he probably meant what he said.

Tim3Tripp3r

I hope that is a misquote.
Otherwise he really needs a remedial English class.

Davidyyz

Glad someone pointed this out. I thought I was tripping out.

wildspin

Microsoft and innovate? LOL

KiwiBri

I think he will do better than Balmer.

ArclightX

I give him 6 months…

huh?

“remove any obstacles that allow us to be innovative”? Does everyone realize that the quote means the opposite of what the person probably means? The CEO just said that the obstacles create innovation and that he wants to eliminate them. Doesn’t he really want to remove the obstacles that prevent innovation? Huge difference!

FlamesFan89

That’s all well and good, but he worded it completely wrong, which was my point. He worded it in a way that suggests that he plans to inhibit innovation by Microsoft, not enhance it.